The amber cracks,The air shivering into prismatic shards of light and sound.The isopod uncoils, tests the ground gingerly;The dreamer surfacing, reaching for life and breathThe pain of the dream receding like a shadow across the browThe world suddenly populousand plentifuland impossibly bright.

The air outside is heavy, today. I've been avoiding the heat all day, shutting out the sweaty mugginess of it all, envisioning the friction of air and the grand climactic spectacle of a real thundershower, washing away the high pressure zone that's been baking us for days. The weather report suggests no such thing, but they've been wrong before; I still have hope.

Have just finished reading "X Saves the World" by Jeff Cordinier, and made the startling discovery that so much of the personal journey I've been on seems to be shared by my cohort -- or at least the intelligentsia among us. The realization washed over me as I was listening to "Message in a Bottle" by the Police... made me feel a lot less lonely. Made me feel like the answer is not in sending my own plea for help so much as it might be in answering others.